Red Sox, despite injuries, pound Rays 8-5

Wednesday

Jun 30, 2010 at 2:00 AM

BOSTON — David Ortiz hit a three-run homer with first base open to break a fifth-inning tie, and Adrian Beltre had four hits Tuesday night to lead the Boston Red Sox to an 8-5 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

JIMMY GOLEN

BOSTON — David Ortiz hit a three-run homer with first base open to break a fifth-inning tie, and Adrian Beltre had four hits Tuesday night to lead the Boston Red Sox to an 8-5 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

John Lackey (9-3) won his fifth straight decision, allowing one run, eight hits and two walks, striking out three to give the Red Sox their 10th win in 13 games. With the Yankees' loss to the Seattle Mariners, Boston moved within one game behind first-place New York in the AL East.

Lackey and James Shields (6-8) had dueling shutouts until the bottom of the fifth, when Ortiz came up with runners on second and third and two outs.

Rays manager Joe Maddon came out to talk to Shields, but no sooner had he returned to the dugout than Shields grooved one and Ortiz hit it over the Tampa Bay bullpen in right. Beltre singled and scored to make it 5-0 after six, then doubled and scored on Bill Hall's homer that made it 8-1 after seven.

Willy Aybar hit a two-run pinch-homer in the eighth to make it 8-3. The Rays added two more on Ben Zobrist's bloop single in the ninth, but Jonathan Papelbon struck out Aybar for his 18th save.

Shields has lost seven straight starts. He gave up five runs, seven hits, two walks and a hit batter, striking out six before leaving three batters into the sixth inning.

The Rays have won three of their last 12 games to fall behind Boston and into third place in the AL East.

The Red Sox were without former MVP Dustin Pedroia and starting catcher Victor Martinez, who were both injured on the trip to San Francisco. Hall played second base and Jason Varitek caught, and both contributed.

Carl Crawford returned and had four hits after missing three games with left shoulder soreness. But the Red Sox took advantage of his arm: In the seventh, Kevin Youkilis scored to make it 6-1 on Varitek's shallow sacrifice fly to left as Crawford's throw barely made it to the infield grass.

Rays center fielder B.J. Upton was not in the starting lineup, but Maddon said it was not because of the outfielder's confrontation with Evan Longoria in the dugout on Sunday. The two had to be separated after Upton didn't run hard after a ball in left-center field during the Rays' 2-1 loss to the Diamondbacks.

"Just all things considered, I wanted to give him tonight off," Maddon said.

The Rays finally scored in the seventh, but they also blew a chance to make it even closer.

John Jaso and Crawford singled with two out, and then Longoria singled to score Jaso and make it 5-1. But Crawford got caught making too wide of a turn at second; Darnell McDonald threw behind him and caught him to end the inning.

After Boston scored three more in the bottom of the seventh, Aybar cut it to 8-3. One out later, Upton came on as a pinch-hitter and tripled — though he slowed up as he approached second base and had to turn it back on to make it to third safely. He was stranded there when Daniel Bard relieved Hideki Okajima and got Jason Bartlett to pop it up to first base.

NOTES: Red Sox SS Jed Lowrie is headed to Single-A Lowell on Saturday to begin rehabbing from mononucleosis. ... Tyler Seguin, who was the No. 2 overall pick in the NHL draft, threw out a ceremonial first pitch along with Nathan Horton, whom the Bruins acquired last week in a trade.

Martinez placed on DL

Red Sox catcher Victor Martinez became the latest member of banged-up Boston to land on the disabled list.

The injury-riddled Red Sox placed Martinez on the DL on Tuesday because of a broken left thumb and selected catcher Gustavo Molina from Triple-A Pawtucket to replace him.

Martinez sustained a minimally displaced break at the tip of the thumb Sunday during a game in San Francisco. Boston hopes Martinez will return after 15 days and miss only 11 games. Red Sox captain Jason Varitek will start at catcher while Martinez is out.

In other injury news, right-hander Clay Buchholz — who strained his left hamstring while running the bases on Saturday — hopes to pitch next Monday or Tuesday. Center fielder Mike Cameron is playing despite pain from an abdominal injury.

Boston manager Terry Francona said he hasn't developed any thoughts of despair.

"I don't feel that way," he said. "Whatever happens happens. That's part of the game. We're coming off a couple of good wins (in San Francisco) and we've done a terrific job. The guys are banding together and the energy in our dugout been unbelievable, and on the field. We're more fixated on that as opposed to the, 'Woe is me.' It's, 'OK, how are we going to win?'

"Guys have done a great job, so there's no reason for me to fret because our players don't seem to be ... we have good players and some of them are hurt. It makes your margin for error a little bit smaller, so hopefully we won't make errors."

Utility man Eric Patterson, acquired in a trade with Oakland on Monday, joined the team and was in uniform Tuesday night. Right-hander Boof Bonser, who was designated for assignment on June 18, cleared waivers on Monday and chose to become a free agent.

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